Adham Selim Portfolio 2013

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PROFILEHONORS AND AWARDSBIO EXHIBITIONS AND LECTURES

Adham Selim, born in Cairo, studied in Ainshams university in Cairo, and in the Städelschule Architecture Class in Frankfurt.

Collaborated with several professional and academic bodies on projects ranging from theory to practice, from architecture to art, the list includes NAGA studio - Los Angeles/Cairo, JDS Architects - Copenhagen, and Opus+5 - Paris and a number of Dutch artists, also worked on projects in the Middle East and China, on the very competitive platform where many international firms are working, also participated in international competitions and won several prizes. Selim’s works had been featured in publications, websites, and exhibitions in Cairo, Dubai, Hong Kong, Frankfurt , and Amsterdam.

Selim is also working independently on researches in collaboration with others, themed by an interest in identity, rapid urbanism, and public space in non-democratic contexts, Selim had been also lecturing on the same topics in several academic and non-academic settings.

In practice, Selim works on architecture that can be a form of culture more likely than a product of culture.

Short-listed: Solar Park South international competition (Italy - December 2010)

Merit winner : HKBCF international competition(Hong Kong - May 2010)

Stranger festival nominee (video art)(Amsterdam - October 2009)

First prize winner : Ainshams Department of Architecture student competition(Cairo - 2004/2005)

Honorary prize winner : Architecture-2100 student competition (Cairo – 2004)

First prize winner : Ainshams Department of Architecture student competition(Cairo - 2003/2004)

Filling the Gap: installation// Cairo Design week, Cairo

Streetless/Streetness: lecture// CIC - Contemporary Image Collective, Cairo// Dept. of History of Architecture and Building Archaeology, TU Wien// Baron Palace, Cairo

On the Theory of Bigness: lecture// Marwan Fayed Studio, Cairo

The Roving Exhibition of the HKBCF winning entries: competition entry// 10 different venues including the Hong Kong Institute of Architects, Hong Kong

Ouroborous: video art// Petersburg project Space, Amsterdam// Studio/K:, Amsterdam

De Piramide van Ijmuiden: video art collaboration with Hans van den Ban // De Piramide van Ijmuiden, Ijmuiden

City One Minute Project: video art collaboration with Anne Verhoijsen// Rotterdam Biennale// Expo Shanghai

WORKSPROJECT / DESCRIPTION

// Spiretec complex62,000m2 of mixed use development including a business hotel

// Taichung Tower380 m high structure commemorating the centennial of the city

// Magnus Homes 12,800 m2 mixed use development (offices and luxury housing)

// Hong Kong Border Crossing Facility 130 hectare development on a reclaimed island north east to Hong Kong Int’l Airport

// Solar Park South Adaptive redesign of 10 Kilometers stretch of the Autostrada del Sol

// Eighth Oasis development 77,000 m2 mixed use complex (Concept development and design development)

// Doha old Harbor Park developmentDesign development of main building skin

// Hotel Palm Jebel AliDesign idea of a mixed use 2B+G+26 hotel

// Pyramids Plateau master plan Design development of primary design sketches

// Lycée français Preliminary design sketch

// Private residence400 m2 private residence

// Infopoint Temporary inforpoint and snack bar for the UIA congress of international architects

New Delhi, India

Taichung, Taiwan

Whitehaven, UK

Hong Kong, China

Calabria, Italy

Cairo, Egypt

Doha, Qatar

Dubai, UAE

Giza, Egypt

Cairo, Egypt

Melbourne, Australia

Turin, Italy

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Competition Entry

Competition Entry

Competition Entry

Competition Entry - Merit Winner

Competition Entry - Short-Listed

Competition Entry under Mimar in collaboration with JDS architects

Commission under Mimar

Commission under Mimar

Commission under NAGA Studio

Invited competition under NAGA Studio in collaboration with OPUS + 5

Commission

Competition Entry

LOCATION YEAR STATUS

PROJECTS

A STUDY ON NON-ORIENTABLE SURFACESMARCH 2013SAC STÄDELSCHULE, FRANKFURTRESEARCHFINISHED

STATUSTYPOLOGYCLIENTDATE

Non-orientable surfaces are interesting for the very fact they don’t evoke orientation, and that’s what makes their relationship to interiority intrestingly ambigeous. In this exercise surface classes are explored with a focus on non-orientable surfaces, followed by various possibile attempts of linking this to material construction systems.

Starting with paper folding, a whole family of non-orientable surfaces was produced, each one of these is conceived digitally by edge mother curves.The problem with this approach is that it heavily draws on Loft command which to a larger degree produces accidental and incontrolable results in terms of topology.

To gain more control on the resulting topology, perpendiculars were constructed over the mother curves, then resulting surfaces were unfolded for fabrication. Unfolded surfaces came with tolerence, which means there is not enough control on topology.

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2 3CreditsConcept : Adham SelimDevelopment : Adham Selim, Soso Beridze, Elene Beradze Graphics : Adham Selim

Topology is then conseived as the result of sequential transformation of successive sections that make a ruled surface.Sections are arrayed in sequence using an axial spine, that which becomes another variable on its on.

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Different variations of the axial spine were introduced to produce different spatial situations.The non-orientable surface that is not supposed to produce orientation starts to produce alternating interior/exterior fields.Contrary to the initial exercise where surfaces can be only assembled either in a linear fashion or as a 2D surface populated elements, the axial spine starts to suggest a more spatial assembly logic.

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Form seems to exist in a categorical isolation, between forms of objects -as we know them- there is a kind of a categorical gap, this

gap does not exist in Deluezian philosophy, where everything happens to be in a continuum of existence, so between every two actualized form

categories there is a fertile phase-space of virtualities pregnant with novel forms and capacities yet to be explored.When distinct objects are subject to a constant cross-scalar and cross-categorical loft, they would appear as singularities in a continuously changing field of matter and energy, but since we’re only exposed to the visible actualized parts of this field, the relationship between distinct singularities,

the whole to whole relationship, remain obscure. This research is about the systematic investigation and production of this relationship.

One strand from the model was isolated for further analysis, and the particular relationship between the keyframe and time in the metric montage, led me to understand the model as a recursive relationship between the path and the successive section generating the surface.So I wrote a script that takes two variables: a base section and a branching path, the script produces successive sections using curvature information taken from the path.At the point of bifurcation, the script returns two curvature values, thus producing two sections and this is how bifurcation can be systematically produced.

The system I was looking for was similar to Étienne-Jules Marey’s chrono-photographs, it starts with a given situation A (pole jumper prepares to jump) ending with a situation B (pole jumper lands), the system generates the in between frames yielding a spectrum of surprising moment that we’re not occasionally familiar with.In this context, an initial model was produced, the model could be understood as a frozen tweening between two imaginary keyframes.

CROSS-SCALAR / CROSS-CATEGORICAL LOFTOCTOBER 2012SAC STÄDELSCHULE, FRANKFURTRESEARCHFINISHED


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lofting here is not a linear process, consecutive sections (keyframes) alone cannot depict the geometry along its timeline, since bifurcations happen along the span of transition, there has to be another variable to control bifurcation - a keyframe at which one section splits into two - what leads the whole process into searching for a branching logic.

The model draws a lot on the cinematic notions of the ‘keyframe’ and the ‘metric montage’ which is a montage device used to regulate transition between images according to their operational aspects like the length of frames or the saturation of a certain color.

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Though the script developed for that purpose started to develop systematic bifurcation, it started to be predictable and overly controlled.

Scripting was dismissed for the moment, and alternative approach to a systematic production of continuity and rupture (montage) in both purely architectural and socio-politics and was pursued.

The former frames general inside-outside relationships and spells out a synthesis of formal geometric, structural and programmatic planning considerations. The second, pursued in the form of a reevaluation of the dominant 20th century artistic practice with respect to social and political considerations,namely ‘collage’

Studying the Kunsthal relates to the previous research in the sense of how the Kunsthal self-consciously stages separation between the outside and the inside.The building in situated along a highway that sits on the top of a dike, on a site crossed by a public pedestrian ramp and a public vehicle road, what turns it into four different smaller rectangles. The initial problem - in Koolhaas words - becomes how to imagine a spiral on a four different squares, and the initial architectural gesture in the early models by OMA suggests interventions that interiorizes conditions that are otherwise exterior.

First question: when man can say he’s really inside the building?

Contrary to normative cases where interior condition is obtained by framing the ‘other outside’, the Kunsthal acheives interior conditions that rather frames views towards itself rather than to the otherness.

The circulation scheme establishes nested loops in which the building frames views towards itself, always reconstructing the past few minutes prior to any given instance along its timeline, as if its function is reconstructing memories only to erase them.

If we’re thinking of this in the light of Étienne-Jules Marey again, the Kunsthal could be rendered as situation A, instead of transforming into situation B, it transforms back to situation A again.

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A STUDY ON THE KUNSTHAL, OMAOCTOBER2013SAC STÄDELSCHULE, FRANKFURTRESEARCHFINISHED


Perhaps that would explain why there are so many photos for the building that look like split-screens.

This split-screen effect assumes some kind of a mirror symmetry leading to a collage effect between the outside and the inside.

The effect is produced by a series of architectural elements that can be categorized according to their materiality into 3 types: translucent, opaque and transparent.

when put together, the three split screens create cycles of gradual transitions and sudden ruptures, first mental image gradually is distorted behind a translucent screen (magenta) then totally obscured by a solid screen (yellow) then revealed in another time behind a glass screen (cyan)

The loop can be expressed by a graph of sequential dissipation of fresh memories and rupture of old ones

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What’ most interesting about the Kunsthal loops is the disparity between the spatial continuity embodied by the spiral circulation, and the juxtaposition of different structures.

This disparity sounds reminiscent of Gordon Matta-Clark work, particularly the way he collaged photographs of spaces after physically splitting them.

These pieces are constructed by theoretically different perspectives, however they still assume spatial continuity

What Matta-Clark is doing is basically bending perspectives through a series of copy, rotate, slice operations to create such kind of alienation of structure while keeping continuity.

By bending the picture plane, GMC created an effect similar to moments where the Kunsthal spaces look towards themselves.

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By bending picture plane, two different iterations of the same geometrical component were created, each belonging to different structures, yet keeping spatial integrity

Then by lofting these 2 components using the same copy, rotate, slice logic, a geometrical equivalent to Gordon Matta-Clark was obtained.

If we’re back again to Étienne-Jules Marey, through structural discontinuity, situation where ‘A’ lofts back to itself, but then ‘A’ is not itself anymore.

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OBJECTS WITHOUT TIME, OR THE IDEAL CHECKPOINTNOVEMBER 2012CORRESPONDENTS MAGAZINERESEARCH / ARTFINISHED


‘Objects without Time’, or the ideal checkpoint, is the non-space through which events happen, yet, without materializing into spaces. But since this is impossible to happen in real, it can only exist in a medium that depicts no time: the isometric.

The checkpoint here is a swarm of objects that appear to float over the immediate space of the two-dimensional field of paper, as if departing from all what connects them to time. They depart from the picture plane, vanishing points, depth, etc. They are just themselves. Relationships render useless here, what matters are the objects in themselves and for themselves.

In a more political understanding, the checkpoint is what always separates a hierarchical system from a heterarchical one. A crossing here would be a crossing from a system that iterates relationships between its subjects to a system that instantiates free selves.

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A STUDY ON REGULATED DEFORMATION OF ISO CURVES

FEBRUARY 2012SAC STÄDELSCHULE, FRANKFURTRESEARCHFINISHED


In this exercise, a curve attractor is used to deform ISO curves of a given surface then reconstruct the surface again using the deformed ISO curves.The resulting surface is then used to populate panels according to the deformed information from the surface.Both the curve and the surface were translated into a list of points1 - Distance between these points is measured and rearranged in a new from the closest to the farthest.2 - The closest points are moved according to their proximity to the attractor curve.3 - All the points, the ones moved and the ones staying at their places are regrouped in one list and re-arranged.4- The grouped point list is divided into several lists of points.5- these lists of points are used to create curves.6- the resulting curves are lofted producing the final surface.

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Usually GH paneling definitions use rectangular panels to facilitate Box-Morphing, the results are expectedly regularly panelized surfaces that are difficult to measure and fabricate.This exercise is an alternative attempt to use non-rectangular panels, to generate irregular paneling pattern that is parametrically measurable - without using Box-Morphing.The panelized surface here is not isolated, I tried to make it as a part of a small project, the panelized surface should fade smoothly with the rest of the surfaces.

A STUDY FOR IRREGULAR PANELING STRATEGYFEBRUARY 2013SAC STÄDELSCHULE, FRANKFURTRESEARCHFINISHED


SPIRETEC COMPLEXJANUARY 2011NEW DELHI, INIDADESIGNCOMPETITION

STATUSDESCRIPTIONLOCATIONDATE

A mixed use development of 175,000 sqm is broadly developed as IT offices, residential, institutional, hotel, retail, auditorium and convention facilities.

Competition scope was to design 62,750 sqm of the given built up area, as the rest of the built up area was already designed as IT offices modules, their location and broad design is final and fixed, so the challenge was to graft the competition scope into the given already designed context.

filling-in site with programexisting condition

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splitting program to reconnect elements in the existing condition

CreditsConcept : Adham SelimDevelopment : Adham Selim, Sherif Tarabishi, Kareem Salama, Sundus SherifGraphics : Adham Selim, Sherif Tarabishi, Kareem SalamaStructure: Motaz Samir

switching horizontal to vertical arrangement of program clears space for outdoor activities

opening views towards the river, open views towards the city from office

further adaptation to provide better protection from excessive heat gain coming from west and south

Responding to the limited foot-print area combined with a dense and demanding built-up program, a gently sloping spiraling ramp/space entrance lobby that doesn’t work only as a circulation route, but rather as a functional space fused on different levels in Z direction.

Chand Baori Jaipur - 800

Hawa MahalJaipur - 1799 AD

Spiretec Noida - 2011

Spiretec Noida - 2011

Performative Skin (enclosed balconies)

Atrium to Shopping Tier

Ramp/Spiral/Space

semi transparent panels inclined at angles greater than the critical angle (42° in case of clear glass) totally reflecting sun light and blocking views from outside.

transparent panels opening apertures to open view varitaing in width according to solar its respective solar access

air cavity between the two skins

Atrium is replaced by over-hanging shifting platforms or lifted tiers, keeping the nostalgic sense of double-height shopping space, illusive exterior feel, and commercial flexibility.

Integration with the existing condition was seen achievable through creating spaces. Subtraction was a successful strategy for opening views to the river, creating spaces for outdoor activities and recreation, that turned out to connect different buildings on the site more than physical bridges and links.

covered pedestrian loop of daily shopping, fresh produce market, street food. the loop is attached back-to-back to the retail to share facilities and services. the contextual setting of the loop allows several playful congregation patterns. (grab food, sit, eat on the stairs,..)

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Taichung Tower is a new landmark for both Taichung and Taiwan, though not aiming to compete in height with other towers in the world. However the design of the project should pursue a careful attempt towards making traditional Chinese architecture and culture visible through a 21st century framework to honor the local building traditions and symbolize the new Taiwan spirit.

Pollution sensors in the tower give instant updates about the quality of air in Taichung (part of the program) this data can be translated into a lighting scheme to the tower, thus people can monitor the health of their city’s atmosphere.

TAICHUNG TOWERNOVEMBER 2010TAICHUNG, TAIWANDESIGNCOMPETITION


CreditsConcept : Adham SelimDevelopment : Adham Selim, Sherif Tarabishi, Sundus SherifGraphics : Adham Selim, Sherif Tarabishi, Hatem HelmiStructure: Motaz Samir

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Offices (Dept. of Urban Development) - energy consumer- requires mechanical ventilation - ordinary structure- restricted entry

Taiwan Tower- energy producer- natural ventilation- special structure - public

splitting the tower and the offices ensures that every building would function smoothly, and creates a public space between the two connecting the community to the gateway park.

solar panels skin

iceray lattice

8 elevated gardens

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Connection to the Gateway ParkThe Academic Corridor

Adjusting Building Aerodynamic Profile

half-loop path running on top of the tower base connecting both sides of the site and enhancing connections between the community and the gateway park as a whole.

the tower base was shifted back to create an ‘academic corridor’ where students from the nearby universities can enjoy sports and outdoor activities.

poor view

intersecting possible fields of view from highway no.1, the Gateway Park, and from Park Avenue to locate the most viewable point on the site.

masked view

full-range view

the adjustment evokes the traditional Chinese notion of connecting earth (square) and heaven (circle) in traditional Chinese culture.

highest point according to Taichung municipal regulations

site most viewable range

best imageability structure anatomy

academic corridor

WHITEHAVEN CENTRAL HARBOR SITESEPTEMBER 2010WHITEHAVEN, UKDESIGNCOMPETITION


With a townscape that significantly managed to remain consistent through time, an architectural character manifesting itself in the town grid, and the earthy tones of the traditionally painted harled render; Whitehaven has such a fragile visual signature. 12,800 m2 of mixed use development (offices and luxury housing) would be a new addition to Whitehaven waterfront provided that it blends well with the architectural character of the small town.

CreditsConcept : Adham SelimDevelopment : Adham SelimGraphics : Adham Selim

matching height with adjacent buildings / framing the Duke street entrance

allocating flats to the SW while offices to the NE reducing energy consumption on heating and cooling respectively

apartments form a “blanket” taking maximum exposure to SW sun while providing shelter to the offices below

removing apartments from ground floor / reconnecting the town’s fabric with the promenade

keeping the Baths building outer skin / “digesting” it inside the building / creating a courtyard in the in-between gap to introduce day light to the offices behind

slashing the flats facades to face SW sun / creating a spacious terrace and roof garden for each unit

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JULY 2010CALABRIA, ITALYINFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENTCOMPETITION: SHORT-LISTED


Italy’s Scilla and Bagnara are crossed by some ten kilometers of the Reggio Calabria Highway, constructed, for the most part, in the 1960s and ‘70s and featuring numerous imposing and, for their time, audacious infrastructures (viaducts and tunnels).This stretch of highway is set to be decommissioned following the construction of a new highway, composed largely of tunnels, the objective was to develop concrete ideas for the reuse of the soon to be decommissioned highway sections between Scilla and Bagnara.

The proposal works on strengthening bonds between the community and development by a process of “layering” that runs on 3 parallel trajectories:

MultiplicityLinearity of the development suggests varying content with each micro-context the road penetrates. The proposal provides different consecutive experiences yet maintaining unity through framing the presence of the road and not camouflaging it, similar to a Chameleon model that is sensitive to its surrounds.

PhasingBy facilitating gradual development on serial phases, adding a self-learning capability in the development logic.

PreservationExisting structures are a part of the mental image of the place, it is important to preserve and use them as a catalyst for development, by exploring their genetic tendencies and transforming them purposefully rather than challenging their existence.

Development is divided into 3 sectors:

Sector A: adaptive reuse of existing structure as a catalyst for further development while keeping main features of the context intact. Developments might range from a sea-view restaurant, to a science center for solar technologies.

Sector B: platform for testing new technologies, this sector is provided with an inflatable structure system capable of adapting with different operation modes.

Sector C: extensive platform for the solar farm modular structure system, this sector is more relaxed leaving space to the Calabrian rich mountainscape to be viewed.

potential for new development

access provided from under bridge

carriageway extension

control point

control point

CreditsConcept : Adham SelimDevelopment : Adham Selim, Sherif TarabishiGraphics : Adham Selim, Sherif Tarabishi

deploying the threshold on site giving thickness to the threshold the island’s width too small to take the full width of the pfogram

splitting and rotating program to fit within the island’s width

rotated plan conincides with alloted sizes of outbound/outboud zones

HONG KONG BORDER CROSSING FACILITYMARCH 2010HONG KONGINFRASTRUCTURE DESIGNCOMPETITION: MERIT WINNER


The geological and geographical specificity of Hong Kong islands ended up with extending urbanism over water as a compromise with nature, giving it almost limitless horizon for future growth.However this urbanism growing over water usually comes at notorious ecological draw-backs.

CreditsConcept : Adham SelimDevelopment : Adham Selim, Sherif Tarabishi, Mohd Mohsen, M. HusseinGraphics : Adham Selim

The masterplan follows a grid of 24x24 meters accommodating a variety of functions yet keeping high construction feasibility.

The proposed design features an integrated shading/rain-water collector/photo-voltaic device designed to mechanically adapt to different weather conditions and equipped with a retraction mechanism that keeps the device safe during severe storms or typhoons.

The proposal features a rain-water network running beneath the whole project, stabilizing keeping a pleasant and thermally-comfortable atmosphere during passenger journey through the project.

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CONTACT

A: De Neufville str, 4, 60599 Frankfurt am MainT: +49 160 321 60 93E: [email protected]: www.adhamselim.blogspot.com

Documents

Adham Selim Portfolio 2013